In ancient time all poultry birds lived in forest. India and middle area of east Asia is considered as the original homeland of chicken. Jungle chicken of prehistoric era first raised as domestic bird in some area like Malay and Java of south east Asia. Then people used to hunt bird form jungle for meat and raise them at home for chicken fight as a source of entertainment. It is thought that, modern chicken originated from red jungle chicken of that time. About class, breed, variety and strain of chicken are described bellow.Classification:
Phylum :Chordata
Class :Aves
Sub-Class :Neornithes
Order :Gallinae
Genus :Gallus
Species :Gallus Domesticus
Class:
Chicken originated from a certain place with same or similar characteristics are of same class. For example, Asiatic class, European class, American class etc.
Breed:
Under class, chicken with same size, shape and characteristic similarity with each other are of same breed. Like, leghorn, minorca etc.
Variety:
Variety is detected by feather color, heat crest or other physical characteristics within a breed. For example, white leghorn, black minorca etc.
Strain:
Strain are made for a certain purpose by internal insemination of at least five generation. For example, star cross white, star cross brown, star brow etc.
Hybrid:
Hybrid chicken are produced for increasing quality and production by inseminating with same or other breed strain. Hybrid chicken become more productive than their parents.
Layer Hybrid:
Layer hybrid are made for producing more eggs by inseminating with same or other selected breeds.
Broiler:
Broiler are 6-8 weeks of aged chicken weights between 2-2.5 kg which are used for only meat production.
Growing Chicken:
Chicken aged between 9-20 weeks of age are called growing chicken.
Classification According to Origin:
According to origin the chicken are of four types.
- Asiatic: Brahma, longson, cochin, asil etc.
- English: Austrolorp, cornish, dorking, orpington etc.
- Mediterranian: Leghorn, minorca, ancona, fayoumi etc.
- American: Road island red, new hampshire, plymouth rock etc.
Classification On the Basis of Production:
On the basis of production chicken are of three types.
Layer:
Layer is for egg production. Some popular layer breeds are leghorn, minorca, ancona, fayoumi, isa brown, babycock, star cross, lohman etc.
Broiler:
Broiler chicken are only for meat production. Plymouth rock, cornish, sussex, dorking, cochin, brahma, asil, star brow, hi-line etc are popular broiler breeds.
Egg and Meat:
This types of breed are used for the purpose of both egg and meat production. Road island red, new hampshire, plymouth rock etc. are popular breeds for both meat and egg production.
